PITS Enseiken's Legacy
by Fateweaver
Summary: A short story based upon the X Universe, concerning the Pandora Interstellar Starfleet (PITS) and its greatest success; which ironically enough, started off as a complete failure.
1. Author's Notes

_Author's Notes_

I usually don't come down here much at all, really. In fact, I usually can be found over on the X2-The Source Forums. For those that don't know who or what my fleet was or is today, I shall give you a quick summary.

First off, my fleet back in X: Beyond the Frontier I called 'Pandora Fleet' because I wasn't a very inventive man in naming just yet. Regardless, I kept my skills sharp and when X2 came out, I was overjoyed at the new possibilities at my fingertips (not to mention the facelifts). Immediately, I began building my fleet anew and soon it grew to be of massive proportions.

My fleet was not just a fleet any more, it was a mobile Empire of sorts. I had many, many ships. In fact, I had developed scripts for my personal usage just to issue commands to specific groups or sectors that I designated.

This was Pandora Fleet, headed by the Captain 'Enseiken' who was a very .. interesting individual. Through many of the wars he fought independently with the Argon Fleet, but in his last war, he fought against a foe too great for him alone.

It seemed that the Khaak and another unnamed threat had joined forces in the outlying sectors of the ring. Swarms of Khaak ships destroyed much of the territories and most races retreated to the far-reach of Argon Federation space. It was there that the most fierce battles were fought.

Enseiken's Fleet, PANDORA, was called to action and was able to hold off the Khaak and their allies long enough for mobile artillery ships to be developed and produced by the Argon Military. Several ships went down, though, and, in the end, Enseiken gave his life to save a few fleeing ships of his fleet as the Khaak ambushed the fleet's command HQ. In one last act of defiance, Enseiken ordered the self-destruct sequence aboard all two-hundred and thirty vessels in the sector with high-yield fusion bombs.

The sector was wiped clean of all life and the gates to it were severely damaged. Nothing survived.

One of the crew that had escaped the Maelstrom of Zero-Hour, Enseiken's Flagship, was named 'Fyrgoff.' One of Enseiken's immediate friends, he grieved for his loss for over three months.

Then, while talking to a scientist at an outpost near Kingdom's End, he was summoned to action once more. Even though the Argon Military had suffered many losses by the Khaak and their allies and even successfully destroyed the brunt of them, now another threat came to them; the Xenon.

Fyrgoff gave command to a small group of ships and defended the border successfully from the Xenon threat, even driving them back to their home sectors, but in the end he called quits to his job and abandoned his post for an idea that Enseiken had once had; turning the job of finishing off the Xenon to the Argon Military.

In remembrance of his late Captain, he began to gather a group of agreeable scientists, respected greatly in their individual fields of science and engineering, to create a jumpdrive the likes of which the galaxy had never seen before.

It was a jumpdrive, so theorized, that would surpass the original model long unusable and non-functional. It could jump to any coordinates in the known universe and even then be extremely accurate. It was what Enseiken wanted.

It would become Fyrgoff's Legacy.

Thus was born Fyrgoff's Fleet, who carried long the tradition of Captain Enseiken; the Pandora Inter-territorial Starfleet, or PITS for short.


	2. The Birth of the Phoenix

Chapter One - The Birth of the Phoenix

"A bit further down! That's it! Okay...and...stop!"

Fyrgoff smiled at his work crew. They'd been installing the upgrades on his new vessel, the Interdicted, for around ten stazuras now.

Nodding to the engineers to release the complex tri-althim manifolds, the prototype shell that they'd been tasked to develop for employment in the new M5-class carrier ships, he slipped into the cockpit.

The feel of leather was a definite pleasurable one on his skin. Sometimes it was the simplest of amenities that made so much difference in the void of space, and he was glad to have spent at least a jazura thinking up all of the things he could do to this vessel before it entered production.

Flipping on the various switches, he checked each component one by one, calling out to the engineers for them to confirm activation as he went.

Click "Plasma fuel line inhibitors-check." "Functioning normally"  
Click "Fusion pulse reactor-check." "Online and nominal"  
Click "GWCS (General Weapon Control Systems)-up and running"  
"That's a go"  
Click "Interlocking plasma sheathes-check." "They're good as well"  
Click "Weapon Ports One through Four-activated." "Affirmative, online and well"  
Click "Turning on electronic manifold operations." The shields flared into life with a bright flare. "That's a go"  
Click "Micro-meteorite deflection shell, go." The shield began rotating slightly in strange, almost smokelike, patterns of light. "Everything looks good so far"  
Click "Bringing system output to 60" The fusion reactor brightened as he pushed the steel lever forward, which would soon control his engines once they were hooked up to the main operating system. "Roger that, fusion reactor still stable"  
Click "Bringing subspace jumpdrive online..." His finger hovered over the switch as he looked over the energy gauge and he hesitated, waiting for the magical number 60, which indicated his systems were ready to activate it.

The indicator's yellow bar reached 60 and he breathed in deeply before he flicked the switch. A lot of lives had been lost do to pre-emptive activation. If he turned it on without the energy available to stabilize it, it would soon generate a small black hole exactly where his ship was, and rip him apart until the ship imploded and the jumpdrive was destroyed.

Exhaling slowly, he flicked the switch and waited. "Now."

The jumpdrive thrummed through his ship, pulsing like his own heart but magnified to shake the whole vessel. Each thrum was a relief, because if there wasn't a thrum, there would be a black hole.

Thrum-Thrum-Thrum-Thrum-Thrum-Thrum...THRUM...THRUM...THRRUUUMM

His eyes widened, the reaction was getting a bit out of hand now. His whole body lunged forward with the last thrum. Gritting his teeth, he knew there was no shutting down the reaction once it started. Either he had installed it correctly, or it would kill him now.

THRUM! The engineers around him took a few steps back nervously, seeing the ship beginning to shake from the power of the jumpdrive's cascading fusion reaction.

THRUM! His eyes widened as a piece of data scrolled across the main screen.

THRUM! The jumpdrive began shaking slightly, barely able to contain the powerful forces of gravity and anti-spacial warp fields within it.

THRUM! The ship lunged forward onto its first landing gear and slammed back into the ground, causing Fyrgoff to groan in pain as several consoles took the liberty of greeting him first-hand.

THRUM! The walls around the ship began to groan and the engineers looked up in horror as a bolt began twisting out of its place.

THRUM! The groaning increased and soon it sounded like the station was actually screaming in pain from the pull on its inner walls.

THRUM! The groaning began to subside and the engineers gulped nervoulsy.

Thrum. The jumpdrive stopped rattling.

Thrum-Thrum. The ship stopped lurching.

Thrum...Thrum-Thrum...Thrum,Thrum. Fyrgoff's chair stopped shaking him into the various consoles around the cockpit.

Thrum,Thrum,Thrum,Thrum,Thrum... The enginner's held their breath hopefully and Fyrgoff closed his eyes in silent prayer for the reaction to not spike.

...Thrum,Thrum,Thrum,Thrummmmm...Mmmmmmmmmm. A slow, but steady, shaking shuddered throughout the ship and Fyrgoff's head dipped forward in silent thanks.

The engineers all yelled in success of the first jumpdrive that was now capable of drawing in such powerful subspace fields that not only could it transport just the ship itself, but it could, if projected far enough, take an entire station with it.

He patted the console and declared the ship was ready for its first voyage. Stepping out of the cockpit, he looked back to the reactor, feet still on the metal ladder, and smiled softly as he saw the beautiful light blue and gold sparkle of the new jumpdrive humming softly.

Jumping down off the ladder the rest of the way, he hugged his engineers and told them he would test the capabilities of the new type of vessel that they had decided to be the 'M6.' Higher not because of its size, but because of its power.

The ability to take a station with you to wherever you wished was such an unheard of technology that if Fyrgoff had wished it, he could sell it to the Argon Navy and not only would they instantly become a superpower, but until someone developed another prototype, they would be literally invincible.

A bit exhausted, he walked back to his quarters, wondering if anyone would've ever expected that such an invention would come from the front of a simple little Solar Power Plant in the Ore Belt.

Then again, he reasoned, without the discovery of the rare mineral that fueled the new jumpdrive, they would've never been able to test this highly-tuned machine in the first place. There just simply wasn't enough energy in anything else to fuel it enough to have it work properly but the rare element 'tricarbonite,' which had enough compressed energy to make a thousand warheads from a piece of mineral the size of his clenched fist.

Slipping into his bed, he smiled at his accomplishment, wondering what the next day would bring... 


	3. Preflight Check

Chapter Two - Pre-Flight Check

"What happens when a force is imposed upon us? Do we think before we set out to act, or do we stand firm until action is proved to be wanted, or better yet needed, to ensure our survival?

When does self-defense become unabashed violence? When does fate become choice? Why do we all suffer, yet still find joy in the suffering of ourselves and others? And if we find joy in that, why do we then find joy in relieving the same suffering? Further still, if we create something to end another thing, then why do we seek to end that which may yet be created and behold us to a new thing that we are not familiar of?"

These were the last words of a dying man as he faded into the blue mist that overtook him; these questions were Captain Enseiken's as we left our brothers-in-arms to their doom, ignorant of the sacrifice they had made for us.

The words haunted me, drove me sleepless for days. What did he mean by those words, what could they be pointing me to? There was something more than just a philosopher's whim in those words, I was sure of it; that's why I took the reigns of the decimated fleet and bore the tattered and ripped flag of the Pandorian Dynasty as the fragile alliance that was forged so long ago began to crumble and fade.

War came to me like a creeping chill in my lungs, as if the first deep breath of Winter had fallen into me and hardened in my heart. Yet fire rained and coursed in the universe; fires long left unkindled by those who sparked them into life, sparked the cruel black of malice into the hearts of our enemy. We were driven back by an enemy that was no less ourselves than our children back at home.

They sought to teach us that some things in the universe were undeniable, and that denying them opened ourselves up our greatest of tragedies and the fall of our pride and spirit. Catastrophes stuck into us like cactus needles in a naked baby's flesh, stinging us back in pain and bleeding dry our wish to survive.

Worlds vanished in fiery blazes that we set off. Suns breathed violently their white breath unto those that dared come close to them. Great captains were annihilated, legendary artifacts incinerated, and the thread that was holding us all together was flaming and fraying.

For three long yazuras the races fought to claim deliverance from our common foe, and billions of brothers fell in battle valiantly trying to hold on to what was left of our legacies and histories.

In the end it was my ship, the UPF "Enseiken's Legacy," that finally broke the back of the Karyn Race, it was the order I gave to launch the star-seeker missile that delivered us from them.

As the sun of their homeworld violently exploded into the dying scream of war, I was reminded of what Enseiken had asked me before he left me forever. Though the war had ended, now greater things had begun to spin. In his own words, "The movie finishes, but the revelation begins."

It was his words that had driven me to derive this new flagship of peace, the ship that I titled after his legacy. "The Zero-Hour" was its name and it gleamed furiously in the bay which I had made it.

It had taken me yazuras of work, building up a foundation for the success of his dream. He had wished to employ a device that he wished to coin 'The Enseiken Drive,' which would allow no more than instantaneous and exclusive transport of materials; then practically nullifying the need for wars over materials; as they are always available at the point in which they would be needed.

Now I had sat in the ship that would drive its eclipsing power and ignited the flame that would forge a new era in space travel. The Enseiken Drive had been realized and now my captain's dream would be reality.

And yet despite all this; I stand in front of the dream that was forged by another and wonder if it was a dream meant to be born, or a dream meant to be learned from.

What things would be born from the silky threads of light pulsing in the belly of the monster I've created? What great revolutions and terrible atrocities would the force that I had created drive to the fullest?

"Fyrgoff!"

I turned my head to see a young man in his late twenties running towards me with brown hair, red eyes, white lab coat and a clean beard. It was the head of my personal research and development team, Jolan Ti'mos. He was a Boron scientist that I had come across at Kingdom's End in the newly comissioned Rimes Fact; we had talked about the Enseiken Drive I wanted to build and he was fascinated immediately.

In fact, he had practically begged to hitch a ride back with me immediately to see what I had done already to the thing. An ambitious fellow, but most definitely down to earth for a Boron physisict.

"Mr. Ti'mos, what's going on? Why are you running so damned hard?" He was a bit lazy too, I had to admit. After all, I was his supervisor so I got to yell at him about that a lot.

Panting, he tapped me on the shoulder and pointed to the corridor he had came from, "The Argon Military is here to see the Enseiken Drive. They've come to evaluate it and see if it's fit to be commissioned by the Navy onboard the Argon Two!"

Smiling, I nodded, "Thanks, Ti'mos, I'll get right to them when I can. Tell them they may proceed to tour the premises and that I will be ready for them in ten mizuras. Ok?"

"Okay!" He yelled excitedly, laughing as he turned and ran back to the door. For a man in his thirties, he had the joyful mindset of a twelve year old, but I guess that's what worked for him.

Climbing into the cockpit manifold, I flipped on the reactor switch, letting it warm for five mizuras before I dared to engage the fuel lines and the other critical systems.

While it warmed, I looked over the hull of the new vessel. The metal was shiny, granted, but if it wasn't durable enough to survive space combat, there'd be no way the Argon Military would even think about placing a pilot in it.

I had invested a small fortune in the frame of the ship to ensure that it wouldn't be flimsy, over a half million creds if I remember. The inertial dampeners and all cost half as much, and the weapons systems, the reactor, the fuel system, and the tricarbonite itself ran up a cost well above that.

All in all, though I hadn't checked the books yet, I had spent well over twenty million creds in the devlopment of this one vessel. Lucky for me, Ti'mos only wanted to be credited for the designs he had placed into the ship.

He had built the reactor system from scratch, the fuel injection manifolds out of what I assumed to be derelict ore pipelines at first and, probably most importantly, the energy-critical portions of the Enseiken Drive.

If he became recognized as one of the people who had fueled its development, he would be a household name in the houses of any physicist or engineer across the galaxy.

Glancing at my watch, I saw that six mizuras had passed already and checked the hull quickly, one last time. Seeing nothing out of place since the last time I had tested it, though I had been assured it had been looked over by a team of crack-shot engineers, I climbed back into the cockpit and initialized the systems for the second trial of the Enseiken Drive.

The test today was to see if I could program the drive to jump from here, the solar power plant in the Ore Belt, straight into an empty hangar bay in an Argon Colossus standing by in Argon Prime.

Ti'mos and I had put several years of thought and work into the operating system and calibrations to make such a finite-jump work, but neither of us had been able to test the system to see if it worked yet.

He assured me that from the readouts he got from feeding commands to the drive operation system yesterday that it would be good for a test today. Just in case, I had been provided an ejection system in the cockpit should anything go direly wrong with the test today.

The cockpit hummed brightly as LCDs lit up around me. The systems were on, the fuel was running; all that was left was to put the match to the fuse, sit back, and enjoy the ride.

The only switch not on was covered by a safety cover with a 'Caution! Enseiken Drive Acuator!' on it, the switch that would send me through subspace to the pre-programmed coordinates.

I breathed in deeply and sat back in the leather of the chair. The journey today was going to be a harrowing one to be sure and if I had made the slightest miscalculation in the initial calibrations of the systems, I could quite possibly end up with my face in the antimatter chain reaction that was driving the same Colossus I was trying to arrive in the hangar bay of.

Making note of a few inconsistencies with the data around me, I pulled down my pad of pre-flight test notes and checked them off one by one, moving down the list at a steady, but determined pace.

I would not hurry the preperations for this test. I could injure hundreds, if not thousands of people if I didn't take the time to check every last component of the data around me to check if it matched to the settings they were supposed to be.

If they wanted me to speed up, they could suck on it, because I wouldn't needlessly endanger innocent lives with a miscalculation or error in the operating system.

The door to the hangar bay slid open and I checked the last few things on the list. Seeing only one small inconsistency with the data charts, which was well within respectable limits, I double checked the items I had checked off quickly and as the group of military officials and scientists from the Navy walked up, I breathed in, signed the document, and stood up from the leather seat.

Looking down on the officials, I placed my pen back in the pocket protector of my flight jacket and nodded to Ti'mos, "Showtime." 


	4. The Color of Fate

Chapter Three - The Color of Fate

"Good morning, gentlemen, I trust you found this outpost without harassment?"

"Show us the drive, Fyrgoff, we don't have much time here."

Fyrgoff's eyes narrowed. Typical Argon businessmen, they have nothing on their minds but to see my work. If it weren't for my device they would look at me in the eyes as if they were stationed behind a turret. Wouldn't hurt them to be a bit more kind in my presence, I'm sure.

Ti'mos walked up and I handed him the checklist. Quickly scanning the items I had noted for his approval for launch, he looked up and nodded, "Yes, these are minor problems; the launch will be as it was yesterday."

One of the gentlemen loudly cleared his throat and I sighed, "Yes, yes, gentlemen. Be a bit more patient; things have been hectic this week and I have not had the time to clear all of the systems before your prompt arrival."

"Hurry it up then, Fyrgoff. If you're not ready in the next-" the leader paused to check his watch, "Ten mizuras, we're leaving and heading back to the Argon One; produce your evidence."

"Very well then. Ti'mos." I called over to the Boron and he looked up to me in surprise, he shook his head 'no.' Furrowing my brows I stated commandingly to him, "Warm the Enseiken Drive and purge the Vents. We're going to do an immediate test."

His eyes widened and he barely stopped himself from stating that it would be dangerous. "Do it, Tim'os." He isn't stupid. He knows that the moment I climb into that cockpit I could be climbing into my grave. Warming the drive like that could cause numerous inter-spacial instabilities; instabilities that could rip my ship apart and turn me into hydrogen atoms, one at a time.

Ti'mos closed his eyes in a silent prayer and pressed the POSS (Pre-Operation Start-up Sequence) button. The engine burst into life as the vents began to vent the coolant that would be required to maintain the constant low temperatures the engine needed to run efficiently. As the internal rotors re-aligned and the bearings found their marks there was a loud whining that seemed to drown the room with the horrible noise. Yesterday everyone had been wearing auralsets, devices that were developed early in the Jumpdrive Era which protected the ears of the pilot from the high-pitched whine of the engine, and today I'm sure everyone in the bay wish they had put on a pair.

I nodded my thanks to him and he waved to me goodbye. Climbing into the cockpit, I shouted to the gentlemen over the whine of the engine, "The whining is only temporary gentlemen, perfectly normal like a Jumpdrive, but a bit louder as you might observe."

One of the scientists that came with the Argon Military envoy yelled back, "Just how many Joules are you using in there anyway?"

Taking my eyes off the displays for a second I looked at him and yelled, "Just over nine hundred; an enermous burst since we started it up all of a sudden."

"Nine-hundred Joules you say!"

I nodded and turned my attention back to the cockpit and replied once more, "And seven megawatts, but this is only a prototype, sir, and further models will be developed I'm sure to address that problem."

Punching in the program lists that Ti'mos had told me to start up in sequence the day before, I saw the cockpit light up faithfully. We had salvaged parts of it from the command console of the Pandora in the last war, a constant reminder to me of what Enseiken had sacrificed to continue our lives.

Ti'mos came over the cockpit speakers faintly, just barely audible over the engine whine, "Your engine spectrometer is reading various inconsistencies in the sample we loaded today! Should we abort the test? It's around four percent degraded, sir!"

I shook my head, "No! It's now or never, and I intend it to be now if that engine keeps running!"

"Sir! Now I'm getting a G-LOC (Gravity-Lock Observation Computer) error; with that system down we wont know how hot the E-Drive (Enseiken Drive) is running and it could go far beyond recommended levels!"

"Ti'mos!" I yelled before any other errors could cut in, "I'm reading that the engine is forty-percent charged, am I right?"

"Yes, sir. The remaining spectrometers are indicating that level of radioactive charge but-"

"Ti'mos, you keep that engine running. Close down your terminal and just let this bird fly; I have faith in this engine, enough faith to know that it'll get me where I'm going. We've spent too long on this to quit now for a few system errors; we're not aborting."

A long hush came over the comm-link as the engine become even more hot, my in-cockpit spectrometer read the engine's preparations at seventy percent now. Then I heard a whine over the speakers and Ti'mos spoke again, "The console's shut down. As soon as you close your cockpit, I will have no control over the ship. ... Good luck sir."

I looked back to the glass window which Ti'mos looked at me behind with sorrowful eyes. "If we don't see each other again, you've been a damn good scientist, and a good friend to me Ti'mos; don't ever forget that."

He nodded and I looked to the representatives, "Gentlemen, we're about to make history. I'm beginning the launch sequence."

I pressed the button and the engine kicked into overdrive. The walls screeched again and the world began to bend around me. My head suddenly felt light and everything outside the cockpit seemed to darken. Gritting my teeth I read the engine's percentage of readiness.

70...80...85...90...85...40...

I kicked the console, "Don't you dare!"

The engine roared again and the percentage rose faster than ever before.

50...70...90...95...98...

The walls seemed to rip as I screamed. The world smashed into redness and I felt the ship ripping apart; part by part.

Then, in the darkness I heard the faint sound that I logned to hear, "Jump completed. Target desstination has been reached."

Smiling, I slumped against the seat of the ship and happily dozed into the long darkness. 


	5. Into the Unknown

Chapter Four - Into the Unknown

A beeping sound brought me back to consciousness. My eyes opened lazily and I waited for the world to come into sight. Stars greeted my eyes and I smiled, back in space again.

Then it hit me. I sat up in my seat and looked around me. Stars were all about, and not a planet or nebula was in my sight. In a panic, I pulled up my sensors and took a look at the 50 klicks around me.

There were a few asteroids and small comets, but no ships; no stations or intelligent life. Switching my sensors to ultra-spectrum and getting the farthest from my ship as possible, I did not find a single gate.

A cold chill seeped into my bones as I looked at the comm-status.  
NO CONTACT

Fingers of ice wrapped in my mind and a chilling roar of fear shuddered through me as I fully realized what I had just done. If my comm was showing that there was no contact, that meant that not a single ship was within an entire lightyear of me.

As if that wasn't enough bad news, I had accomplished something that no-one else ever had. I had jumped outside the loop. I was completely free of any bounds that the ancient race imposed on me, and I was totally and undeniable afraid of what might become of me.

Unshackled and shivering, I guided my ship to the nearest asteroid and landed as steadily as I could. Shutting down all the systems I could, I took a look at my energy reserve. By the readings in the fuel lines, I guessed I had a little over two day's power at the rate of consumption indicated.

I could minimize the powerloss by shutting down every other system other than life support, but that would only buy me a few more hours thanks to optimizations in the fuel controls that I had Ti'mos fix onto my engine.

Thinking through the current situation, I realized that the first order of business was to find some crystals to hopefully create a small nexus to recharge my engine's fuel supply.

It was out here, in the vastness of space, that I found that life in space would be the toughest thing I would ever do. Here, there would be no refuels unless I refueled my ship, no food unless I found it, and worst of all, no oxygen unless I could find some.

My stomach turned into a pit of fear at the sight of the vast emptiness and I wondered if I would survive this. Who could? Everyone before me had relied on at least the reassurance of having a constant fuel source readily available.

Checking my targetting computer, I sighed as I realized that the coordinates were still logged on my computer, the place where I would've jumped.

Quickly, I turned the targetting computer off and turned on the flight recorder. Scanning through the various error messages until I found the most important one: The one that had sent me here to die.

SHIPLOG000006

SYSTEM IS ACTIVE

REACTOR HAS BEEN STARTED. REDIRECTING ALL AVAILABLE POWER TO SUPPLEMENT ENSEIKEN DRIVE

MINIMAL POWER SUPPLY ATTAINED TO FUEL REACTION. DRIVE IS NOW ACTIVE.

PROGRAM 0039 ACTIVE PROGRAM 3929 ACTIVE PROGRAM 0293 ACTIVE PROGRAM 1948 ACTIVE PROGRAM 2031 ACTIVE PROGRAM 0049 ACTIVE

AUTO-INPUT TARGET COORDINATES ARE: X:20 Y:09 Z: 203 ARGON PRIME

COORDINATES CONFIRMED VALID BY COMMSYS

COORDINATES LOADED INTO ENSEIKEN DRIVE. DRIVE IS PREPARING FOR JUMP.CAUTION! INSTABILITY DETECTED IN SAMPLE! CONTACT PILOT IMMEDIATELY!

WARNING! SYSTEM IS BECOMING UNSTABLE!

WARNING! SYSTEM IS BECOMING UNSTABLE! SHUTTING DOWN LINK TO ROUTECONT33 TO PREVENT LOSS OF TARGET COORDINATE INFORMATION.

WARNING! SYSTEM HAS BECOME UNSTABLE! FURTHER DATA LOSS MAY OCCUR!

ATTENTION! ENSEIKEN DRIVE IS UNSTABLE! ATTENTION! ENSEIKEN DRIVE IS UNSTABLE!

UNRECOVERABLE ERROR : POWER HAS RESET TARGET COORDINATES. GUESSING APPROXIMATE TARGET ... RAM LOST. RESETTING TARGETTING SOFTWARE. PLEASE WAIT, ACCESSING SYSTEM COMMAND.

ERROR! FATAL EXCEPTION 00483CCF : POWER INPUT IS TOO HIGH! SYSTEM IS UNSTABLE!

SYSTEM ACCESS FAILED. RETRYING.

ERROR! FATAL EXCEPTION 00483CCF : POWER INPUT IS TOO HIGH! SYSTEM IS UNSTABLE!

SYSTEM ACCESS FAILED. RETRYING.

ERROR! FATAL EXCEPTION 00483CCF : POWER INPUT IS TOO HIGH! SYSTEM IS UNSTABLE!

SYSTEM ACCESS FAILED. RETRYING.

ERROR! FATAL EXCEPTION 00483CCF : POWER INPUT IS TOO HIGH! SYSTEM IS UNSTABLE!

SYSTEM ACCESS FAILED. COMMAND CODES ARE INVALID.

RECOMMEND IMMEDIATE SHUT DOWN OF CORE REACTOR SUPPLY. MESSAGE SENT TO SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR.

SYSTEM COMMAND STATION LOGGED OFF.

COMPUTER COMMAND REDIRECTED TO PILOT.

ERROR! POWER FLUCTUATIONS IN REACTOR CORE ARE REACHING OVER 300 PERCENTILES! RECOMMEND IMMEDIATE SHUT DOWN TO PREVENT CORE BREACH AND ENGINE DESTRUCTION, RESULTING IN IMMEDIATE DEATH OF PILOT AND ALL WITHIN 50K WITHIN TEN SECONDS!

PILOT DID NOT INTERVENE!

PILOT DID NOT INTERVENE!

PILOT DID NOT INTERVENE!

ACCESS TO COMMAND HAS BEEN REDIRECTED TO SYSTEM CONTROL TO ALLOW THE SAVING OF LIVES. WE ARE SORRY FOR ANY INCONVENIENCE THIS MAY CAUSE BUT IS NECESSARY!

INTERJECTION MADE BY SYSCONTROL. AUTO-INPUTTING COMMANDS APPROPRIATE TO SHUNT OVERPOWER TO PREVENT LOSS OF SHIP AND CREW. IMPLEMENTING.

SHUTTING DOWN REACTOR AND ENSEIKEN DRIVE

THE INTERJECTION HAS BEENERRORERRORERRORERRORERRORERRORERRORERRORERROR ERRORERRORERRORERRORERRORERRORERRORERRORERRORERROR ERRORERRORERRORERRORERRORERRORERRORERRORERRORERROR ERRORERRORERRORERRORERRORERRORERRORERRORERRORERROR ERRORERRORERRORERRORERRORERRORERRORERRORERRORERROR ERRORERRORERRORERRORERRORERRORERRORERRORERRORERROR

SYSTEM RAM CLEARED

WARNING! ENSEIKEN DRIVE IS ACTIVE AND PREPARING TO JUMP!

SYSTEM INPUTTED RANDOM COORDINATES TO PREVENT NULL JUMP

ARRIVED AT DESTINATION

PILOT LOST CONSCIOUSNESS

PILOT REGAINED CONSCIOUSNESS

PILOT ACTIVATED LANDING GEAR

PILOT HAS SHUT DOWN ALL NON-CRITICAL SYSTEMS

PILOT TURNED TARGETTING SOFTWARE ON

PILOT REQUESTED INFORMATION ON LAST TARGET

PILOT TURNED TARGETTING SOFTWARE OFF

PILOT ACCESSED FLIGHT RECORD DATABASE, VIEWS LOGFILE00006

NO FURTHER RECORD OF INTERACTION BETWEEN SHIP SYSTEMS AND PILOT

I slumped against the leather of the pilot seat as I shut off the flight record. Hopeless of getting home, I looked at the stars and began to cry. 


	6. Back in my day, things worked

Chapter Five - Back in my day, things worked

"I am sorry, but I do not understand the nature of your inquiry; please rephrase the question and ask again."

"I asked if there are any comets or asteroids within an acceptable radius of this ship."

"Please define 'acceptable,' Captain."

"Acceptable as in I can get to them before I die acceptable?"

"Understood. There are 3,194,402 asteroids in your vicinity and 30,220 comets relative to this area that you could reach before oxygen supply is out or energy reserves are unusuable."

"Great, just great."

"I do not understand the-"

I flipped the switch for the navigation control center and slumped against my chair. "Enseiken, what would you do in this scenario? You taught me all about surviving in space but I don't think you quite expected something like this to happen."

Looking over to my oxygen and energy reserves I observed that I had one more day of oxygen and around forty five mizuras of engine power. After that I'd have ten mizuras for my systems and then exactly three mizuras until life support failed.

Getting up from my seat, I looked at it and wondered if the crawl space Ti'mos had installed was still there. If it was, I could take a look at the Enseiken Drive. Maybe it had enough power to get me back, but if there wasn't enough power there then I didn't know what I would do.

"So... did you take it out like I told you to Ti'mos?" I asked aloud as I grabbed one of the screwdrivers in the toolkit I had placed in the cockpit. Normal spacefaring vessels had no need for such a thing, but thankfully I had done some repairs the night before the accident and had forgotten to take out the engineering kit.

The bolts took some doing, but I got them off in around ten minutes. Deciding I might as well make use of the flight log in case anyone else made it out here. "Computer, begin Journal Entry in Log number seven."

"Recording." The computer replied immediately in her monotone voice as I slung an engineer's belt over my hips and stuffed some of the tools in it. Grabbing the screwdriver again, I went to work on taking out the remaining bolts as I talked.

"i can't believe that I'm stranded out here with no oxygen and spare energy cells. Then again, in hindsight, I never quite expeced to be in a position like this." I popped off the seat now that all the bolts were unfastened and smiled to say, "And it looks like my chief engineer didn't do as I told him; thanks."

Crawling into the crawlspace, I shuffled my way back to the engine and took a look. All of it was stabilized and no current was running through it at the moment; no risk of me immediately finding death in a sharp spike of electricity coursing through my body.

"I just took a reading of my surroundings. Lots of asteroids and comets around here. I must be near a dead planet or something; don't think I'll find much oxygen or pure energy crystals though. Think there was about three million asteroids 'round here and I don't have the time or the power to search them all for raw materials."

I tapped the gauge on the engine's energy reading. "Looks like there's about a megawatt of power left in the Enseiken Drive; not enough for a jump back to wherever I was. If I distribute the power, it would give me a bit over two jazuras of power, but I need that power to remain here. Two jazuras mean nothing if I can't jump back home."

Popping open the circuit manifold, I grabbed the clippers from my engineer pack. "Though, if I can redirect some of the power here to my scanners I might be able to grab some quick data on which asteroids contain anything worthwhile. Though it'll probably draw about a quarter of a megawatt just for that short pulse. Still, if I find the stuff I need..."

The two wires sat in front of me now and I looked at them. If I tied them, my system relays would be fused with the Enseiken Drives power circuits, and I couldn't shut it off after that. I'd have to shunt the power elsewhere.

"Yeah, looks like the wiring here wont allow me to change my mind once I fuse the two wires. So-I've got to find a place to put all of the rest of power once I start drawing it from the reactor. But dammit, I don't know the power routing of this ship, Ti'mos was in charge of that."

Sighing, I leaned my head back on the floor of the crawlspace and closed my eyes. "Then I guess I don't have much of a choice, do I? There's not much else I can put that much power into without risking an overdraw of power and blowing apart the ship; nevermind rupturing the plasma manifolds."

I tapped the plasma tube above me and sighed, "If I could somehow draw the power of the plasma here I could make get another megawatt out of the engine. Two megawatts might be able to get me a better resolution on the scan, but I'd only have around three mizuras after that to get to the asteroid, land, and grab the stuff I need. Which means... there needs to be an asteroid within three mizuras of here that has the gas we collected back at the outpost."

"Which means that I need to take a better look at my surroundings." I said as I shuffled back out of the crawlspace. I sighed as I saw the red light blinking above me. "Dammit, I thought I shut that thing off yesterday. I don't really care if the plasma vents are open now."

Standing up, I reached for the button and then my eyes caught the sun behind it. It was pretty dark for a sun, looked like it was about to supernova or something. Gas was hanging all around it and it was actually eerily pretty.

"Wait ... if I can use those two megawatts I could power the shields for about a mizura at maximum... and if those gases are plasma, I could power the engine for more than thirty stazuras; dammit, why didn't I think of that earlier?"

I got back down into the crawlspace, grabbed my pliers and welder and cut the wire that led to the shield power supply. I clipped the other wire, fused it to the shield and flipped open the cover on the shield's manifold which read 'Caution! Manual shield restart!'

Sucking in some air to calm myself down I flipped the switch, "Let's see what this does." The shield burped for a brief second and then whined. The outer shell began to get brighter with heat and I smiled, "Yes!"

I closed the electrical panel and shuffled out of the crawlspace once more. "Looks like I might be able to do this. Just as long as the gases don't eat through the shield and get to the hull I'll be fine."

Grabbing the bolts off the manifold, I began fastening the chair back into the floor. "So I'll probably need to grab as much as fuel as I can. It'll maybe take two mizuras for the plasma to convert to raw energy if the system's not damaged," I said happily.

Then the realization hit me, "But what if the system's damaged? I could be without oxygen for three mizuras at least... This isn't good. After ten mizuras my brain will shut down and from there it wouldn't really matter if it worked, would it?"

Sighing, I booted up the system relays again and checked the in-flight computer system. Calling up the damage report, which I admitted should've been done first, I stared in awe at what it printed on the screen.

All systems functioning within normal parameters. coloryellowSmall leak detected in Plasma Vent 01; minor in size, will not expand under normal conditions.

"But I don't know what side Plasma Vent One is, dammit. Which side do I need to grab the plasma on?"

The computer was silent and the plans didn't illustrate it. "Damn, if there was one thing I needed to know, it was that." I sat back into the seat and took the controls up again.

"Computer, begin startup sequence." I commanded as I flipped some of the switches and buttons on the console. The engine whined into life and the system immediately came up with the error: Warning! Enseiken Drive is malfunctioning and/or is damaged! Power supply leak!

I clicked the 'confirm' button and eased the throttle forward. Thankfully, the engines hadn't frozen over and seemed to be working just fine. Pointing my ship at the dark bronze sun I pushed the throttle joist forward and the ship lurched for a moment and the engine whined in protest.

"What!" I yelled as another error message popped up on the console. Fuel Supply is leaking. System has shut down the engine for repairs for your convenience.

Growling, I kicked the computer, "Dammit, I don't care if it needs repair, I'm using this engine and there's nothing you can do about it!"

I pulled back the throttle, hit the engine burn button again and pushed the throttle forward. Again the engine whined in protest and the error popped up, this time adding on the statement: Pilot may be mentally unstable or unsuitable for the command of this vessel. Please cease your actions as they risk the ship you command. You are plotting a course that leads directly into the sun of this system. Transferring system control to automatic pilot.

I popped open the console's circuit board and snapped one of the wires, the auto-control system. I'd have to do everything manually now but at least I could move my ship this time. I always knew that I hated the Teladi, but now I hated them even more for their 'mental instability chip' that they so prided themselves upon.

I pushed the button and throttled the engine yet again and this time the ship hummed brightly as it moved forward. Smiling triumphantly, I slapped the throttle forward and burned the engine's fuel supply. If there was a leak in the fuel supply, I wanted as much momentum as I could take before the supply gave out.

The gases came slowly at me and I tensed my shoulders. Slapping my face to make sure I was awake, I blinked hard at the gas and readied my mind for the plasma capture. It was going to be dangerous, but it would be one of the only ways I could garnish enough power to drive the engine home.

As the gases approached my vessel, now under five kilometers away, I wondered briefly what Enseiken would think of this voyage into the unknown. Immediately, I smiled as I realized that he had told me once that once I took the helm of a vessel he would be there with me to help me take my first few steps. Now I had the console he had commanded in front of me and the ship with a drive in his name. He had promised he would be there with me with my first few steps into the unknown and even though he was dead he still managed to do it.

I laughed to myself as I said, "You're a stubborn old bastard aren't you, Enseiken?" 


	7. Enseiken's Legacy

Chapter Six - Enseiken's Legacy

"Warning! Possible leak may occur if valves not close!" The computer whined as my head spun back into reality.

"Wha?" I said as I opened my eyes. Searing light flared into me and I cried out in pain as I snapped my eyes shut. Stars danced in my eyelids and I growled, "Dammit, I must've passed out during the gathering."

Grabbing onto the console, I hauled myself back into the chair and shook my head clear. Looking at the panel, I felt a shiver involuntary flutter across my spine.

"Looks like it worked." I said to myself silently. The plasma vents read 100 Filledventing

Everything had fallen into place as I had hoped and now came the time to calculate how much power I could take out of the plasma from the dying star. Flipping on the mass spectrometer in the plasma manifolds, I checked the composition of atoms for the high-level radiation spots which would tell me just how much oomph the gases held for my engine.

The computer came back with the result and I smiled. "Great. 20,000 Joules of instant energy. That's great news." Leaning back into the chair, I flipped off the mass spectrometer and called up the navcom link above me.

It still read 'NO SIGNAL'

Sighing, I looked back to my console and began the complex procedure of rerouting the energy in the vents to my engine's intake. The valves closed around the gas and started pumping it into the engine with one gigantic lurch of unaided acceleration.

My head snapped back into the chair and I yelped in pain. "Dammit! What a push!" I yelled with a grin as I shook my head again and pulled the acceleration lever a bit forward.

The engines roared to life, howling in fury compared to the weak grumbling a few minutes ago and I screamed out my happiness, "Yahoo! It works! I knew it would!"

Giving myself a pat on the back and said, "Okay, it's official, I'm a genius."

Looking down to my engine output, it read about half of what it usually would be with real energy cells to power it, but that would be more than enough to power them to full capacity; much to my enjoyment.

Calling up my navigational map, I cleared this sector and named it. "Enseiken's Legacy." Smiling, I closed down the navigation computer and booted the jumpdrive software.

After a few teeth-grinding minutes, the console blinked into life and the engine posted: STATUS: POWER ON. NON-OPERATIONAL.

My heart sank. If I had just collected those gases and they didn't have enough power to even jumpstart the reactor then I was in a lot of trouble.

I set the engine into standby, feeding it power that it really didn't need, but at least it kept it slightly warmer. A low hum rumbled in the belly of the ship and I smiled. "At least the E-drive's still up and running."

I reclined back into the chair and tried to remember everything I could about energy cells. Ti'mos had told me something about the strange properties of some of the cells he had loaded into the cargo bay; he hadn't put them into the engine because they weren't purified.

I couldn't use those however. If I put them in the reactor coil, it would cause a shutdown the likes of which this sector would never see again. Black holes, I think, aren't quite likely to just pop up in the middle of a system with a dying star that wasn't dead at the time of the black-hole's arrival.

I remembered something about the energy cell process. In the catalization of the immense condensation of energy into energy cells through energy crystals, there needed to be an inert gas to transfer the motion without damaging the parts. Usually, Nitridium was used in small amounts to regulate the gases fluidity, but some Goners said that the process worked fine even without the other gases and just pure plasma.

Still, that required a concentrated shield in a local area around the crystal to ensure it didn't break during the process. Ti'mos had told me he had to buy one for the immense precision needed for the jump coordinates; to get me inside the hangar bay of that Centaur in exactly the right place.

But-I didn't need that kind of precision, did I? I just needed to get myself back inside the loop, though I was kind of wondering what the universe was like outside the loop. Though harsh, I was seeing things that none had ever seen before me.

Smilling, I decided that it would be better not to let Ti'mos mourn me yet. Grabbing my tool-set, I took off the chair again and crawled into the crawlspace.

It was very hot in the crawlspace now that plasma gas was being circulated in some of the pipes. Looking at the humming Enseiken Drive, I tried to find the crystal that he had put beside it where a laser beam was supposed to be calibrating itself.

If I could position the crystal in the right place, I could not only re-calibrate some of the software in the E-drive manually, but I could create a super energy cell.

E-cells were usually made of just solar light captured, but if I had the light in an extremely local area, I could create an energy cell that would be millions of times stronger in energy levels; but for that I needed a fusion reaction.

I had been forced to take some reactor courses before anyone allowed me near any Argon vessel. In one of them we were discussing fusion theory, and how fusion was implemented in next-generation engines being developed in those times.

Of course, my ship was still reliant on hydrogen, a thing that many ships had moved on from, but if I was right, there were very heavy concentrations of hydrogen in the gas that I took in.

If I could somehow maintain a field of cascading plasma bubbles, I could create a fusion reaction in the crawlspace to power the energy crystal, to in turn power the E-drive, which would, in turn, get me home.

There was a risk, of course. If I messed up on any of the steps, I would be out of luck. But what did I have to lose? Last time I checked, I only had around three hours of oxygen left in the support systems. Oxygen was free back home, but out here it wasn't cheap; not a single trace of it was to be had from the readings I had taken earlier on closer analysis.

Grabbing the crystal out from the laser's warm glare, I fastened it to an emergency handle which controlled the hydraulics fo the ejection system and pointed the laser beam at the crystal. The beam fragmented and spread all over the crawlspace. I twisted and turned the crystal tirelessly, searching for that one all-important reflecting point.

Suddenly, the beam grew white hot and the floor it was aiming at began steaming. Smiling, I nodded and said, "Yeah, that's the spot."

Flipping open the wiring panel across from it, I shunted the power from the shield vents to the Enseiken drive. The pipes hissed and the gas began to flood the Enseiken drive.

I reached above me to where the handle that read: Warning! Unstable energy cells! DO NOT USE! and pulled it. A shaft of glowing shells descended in a pipe and plugged into the Enseiken drive.

Quickly, I crawled out of the crawlspace, re-fastened the chair and called up the shield generator. Already the ship was groaning a bit; a fusion reaction was about to take place if I didn't intervene soon.

The shield generator console read: Warning! Gas leak in reactor core! Suggest immediate reactor ejection!

Ignoring the advice, I brought the generator to full capacity, shutting down all the other non-functional or non-necessary systems to re-route their power to it. I would need a strong shell to make sure the reaction didn't blow my mid-ship to shreds along with the precious Enseiken Drive.

The generator was now reading at a 300 protection radius. I began focusing the generator and very slowly began localizing it in the shield generator itself. The ship began shaking as the power electromagnetic fields and other potent energy fluxes began to shimmer around the red-hot shield generator.

Now came the tricky part. I had to use the crystal to create a fluctuation in the shield that would destabilize it and make the shield immediately re-stabilize over the most necessary to protect portion of the ship: The reactor.

I unfastened the chair again, I had only bolted one bolt back on this time, and crawled into the crawlspace. Immediately a wave of white-hot heat hit me and I groaned in pain. It was hot as hell in the crawlspace due to all the high-intensity fields flying about in there.

Slowly, I slid the crystal down by pulling the lever slowly. Soon it rested on the shield generator and I waited for the inevitable. I would only have two seconds after the shield destabilized to remove the crystal from the handle or else it would eat into the generator and cause an explosion from the conflicting particles flying about.

The shield began to wink and then I heard a high-pitched whine as the shield flashed off, blinding me. Quickly, I pulled the lever all the way down and grabbed the crystal. Immediately I felt the laser eating into my palm and screamed as I flung the crystal behind me.

It tinked across the crawlspace and the shield generator hummed to life again, this time making a bubble over the reactor to guard it from harm. It was a small glitch I had discovered in the original software; an old piece of code that really was quite stupid once you thought about it in the terms of combat.

Now, however, I saw the genius behind the coder and thanked him well for being so far ahead of the other shield makers in his ingenuinity and practicality.

Opening my eyes, I saw the Enseiken drive turning white hot and I gulped down my fear. I only had one shot now. I had to focus the beams in the reactor to ignite the shockwaves now and cause a huge fusion burst.

The burst would, hopefully, if timed down to the microsecond of fusion creation, create a wave of energy powerful enough to power the engine fully. Though it would destroy the prototype, I was sure.

A bit sad that I would be destroying something me and Ti'mos had worked on for so long, I crawled back into the cockpit and bolted the chair back into place, this time all the bolts.

Fastening myself securely into the pilot's seat, I called up the algorythm manager and called up a few functions. Quickly, I programmed the functions to activate when a huge increase in temperature next to the reactor occured; the functions would call the program of E-drive ignition and would place in the original test coordinates: The gas cloud in the Ore Belt where the old pirate base was.

Sitting back in the chair, I gritted my teeth and closed my eyes. With the way the ship was shuddering and groaning now, this was my last foolish hope: that absolutely everything would go right after everything went so horribly wrong.

DESTINATION INPUT: X? Y?Z?

RANDOM TEST COORDINATE INPUT - NOT FOUND

INPUTTING STANDARD FACTORY COORDINATES

FACTORY COORDINATES NOT FOUND

A high pitched whine caught in my ear but before I could snap my eyes open in horror, the ship exploded violently as the fusion burst took place. The last thing I saw on the screen was

RUNNING PROGRAM 


End file.
